Sunday, September 11, 2016

Prater gets redemption with late field in 39-35 win at Indy

Matthew Stafford took advantage of one last chance Sunday and Matt Prater redeemed himself with a 43-yard field goal with 8 seconds to give the Detroit Lions a 39-35 victory at Indianapolis.

Prater missed an extra point wide right with 4:04 left in the season opener, a miscue that nearly cost the Lions.

Detroit won for only the second time in Indy, and it came just 37 seconds after it looked like Andrew Luck had rallied the Colts for an improbable last-minute victory.

It just wasn't enough to avoid Indy's third straight opening day loss in a wild finish.

After Prater's miss, Luck drove the Colts 75 yards and hooked up with Jack Doyle on a 6-yard TD pass with 37 seconds left. Adam Vinatieri's extra point gave the Colts a 35-34 lead.

This time, Stafford connected with receivers who took advantage of their speed against Indy's thin secondary. He quickly got the Lions into position for Prater to atone for the earlier miss.

Stafford was 31 of 39 for 340 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions.

Indy was called for a safety on the final play of the game, for throwing an illegal forward pass in its end zone.

LUCK'S RETURN: In Luck's first meaningful game in more than 10 months, he started slowly and finished strong, as he usually does.

Luck wound up 31 of 47 for 385 yards with four touchdowns and had no turnovers - a stark contrast to his mistake-prone ways during an injury-riddled 2015 season.

KEY NUMBERS: Detroit averaged a league-low 83.4 yards rushing per game in 2015 but had 87 at halftime and finished with 116.

Frank Gore rushed 14 times for 59 yards, but the Colts extended their streak of consecutive games without a 100-yard rusher to 51.

SLOW START: Indianapolis spent the offseason looking for ways to start faster. The results didn't match the effort. Indy trailed 14-0 before Luck finally got in sync by finishing the first half with two scoring drives to make it 21-10.

OLYMPIC MOMENT: For the second straight day, Olympic gold medalist Lilly King received the loudest ovation of the Indiana contingent that competed at the Rio Olympics. On Saturday, Indiana University honored the Hoosiers who competed between the first and second quarters. On Sunday, the reaction was the same at halftime of Lions-Colts.

INJURY REPORT: Detroit's Theo Riddick left for a while to undergo the concussion protocol, but returned late in the game after being cleared.

Indy had three defenders go down on one series late in the first half: safety T.J. Green (sprained knee), cornerbackPatrick Robinson (medical evaluation), and linebacker Sio Moore. Cornerback Antonio Cromartie also left briefly in the first half, holding his left wrist. Moore and Cromartie returned. Green and Robinson did not. Safety Winston Guy(ankle) also left late in the game and did not return.